Bunny painting fetches $530k at auction

A painting rarely seen in public has sold at auction in Melbourne for more than $500,000.

The 1910 work by St Kilda-born artist Rupert Bunny is titled Green Caterpillar and features two women inspecting a caterpillar on a garden bench.

It was expected to fetch $300,000 but was sold for $530,000, including the buyer's premium.

For the past century, the painting has been in the hands of private collectors and spent a brief period with the Art Gallery of New South Wales.

The last time the work appeared in a major exhibit was 1911 and it has only been seen on a few occasions by a small number of people until now.

Sotheby's Geoffrey Smith said the painting generated a lot of interest both from Australia and abroad.

"He was a Melbourne-born artist, who lived and worked in London and for many years in Paris and in a sense he is an artist who has transcended his nationality and become internationally recognised," he said.